Senate to take final vote on boosting Social Security benefits for many public service retirees

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was moving late Friday to a final vote on a proposal to boost Social Security payments for millions of people, potentially pushing a longtime priority for former public employees through Congress in one of its last acts for the year.

The bipartisan bill would eliminate longtime reductions to Social Security benefits for nearly 3 million people who receive pensions because they worked in federal, state and local government, or public service jobs like teachers, firefighters and police officers. Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it would also further strain Social Security Trust Funds.

The legislation has been decades in the making but the push to pass it came together in the final weeks that lawmakers were in Washington before Congress resets next year. All Senate Democrats except one, as well as 23 Republicans, supported the effort to bring it to a final vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “very important for our retired teachers and firefighters and postal workers and police officers and so many other public servants who deserve their full Social Security benefits.”